Influence of Pre-stimulation with Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Learning and Memory Ability and the Activity of SOD,NOS in Hippocampal Area of Alzheimer Disease Model Rats

Objective To investigate the effect of pre-stimulation with acupuncture and moxibustion on learning and memory ability and the activity of SOD,NOS in hippocampal area of Alzheimer disease rats.Methods The Passage Water Maze was used in the experiment to observe the effect of pre-stimulation with acupuncture and moxibustion at Baihui(DU 20),Shenshu(BL23) acupoint(respectively,single acupucnture,single moxibustion and combined use of acupuncture and moxibustion were applied) on learning and memory ability of Alzheimer disease rats;and the visible light spectrophotometer was used to determine the changes of activity of rat's SOD、NOS in hippocampal area.Result Through study and memory ability test with Water Maze,the results of pre-acupuncture group、pre-moxibustion group、pre-acupuncture-and-moxibustion group、sham operation group rats were all better than that of model group(P0.01);The pre-acupuncture group,the pre-moxibustion group,the pre-acupuncture-and-moxibustion group and the sham operation group rats showed the remarkable enhancement in activity of SOD in hippocampal area compared to the model group(P0.01),nevertheless,the NOS activity obviously reduced(P0.01).Conclusion Pre-stimulation with acupuncture and moxibustion could increase the SOD activity,depress the NOS activity,in rat's hippocampal area,and improve learning and memory ability of AD rats.